Wendy

Wendy is a licensed clinical psychologist who has been practicing for 34 years. She owns a private practice and works from home doing telehealth. She raised two amazing women – her oldest daughter is a psychiatric nurse practitioner at Akron Children’s Hospital and her youngest works for L’Oreal in human resources. Wendy is passionate about giving back to the community through canine Caring Angels, a therapy dog program. Her little pup, Hazel, brings joy to everyone – including chemotherapy patients. Wendy is an avid golfer, loves playing tennis, and just finished a half marathon in Dingle, Ireland. She recently participated in “Dink for the Pink,” a pickleball breast cancer fundraiser, and won first place in the rookie division! Wendy is part of an amazing group of breast cancer survivors called the Dragon Dream Team. Next August, she will compete with her dragon boat team internationally in France.

Wendy was diagnosed with Stage 1 invasive ductal carcinoma in January 2023. Her daughters, her teammate Earlene, and her church friend Nicole were her main supporters. She chose to undergo a unilateral mastectomy with immediate reconstruction with Dr. Lewis Diulus.

At the time of her reconstruction Wendy hoped to feel whole again. “Dr. Diulus was fantastic to work with when my implant needed to be replaced and while doing fat grafting,” she said. “We even share a love of running.” Wendy’s final reconstruction step is replacing the nipple through a prosthetic or tattoo after surgery. She is grateful to Ellen Walker, the breast cancer physical therapist who helped her so much. Wendy advises other women facing a cancer diagnosis to “embrace their inner strengths and the amazing community of survivors for support. Healing is a process; utilizing therapy, a support group, and having an amazing sisterhood with the Dragon Dream Team has been life altering.” Wendy chose to walk the Pink Runway in honor of her beautiful friend, Dr. Lisa Stanford, a breast cancer survivor who sadly lost her fight to pancreatic cancer in August 2024. “Breast cancer can be an agonizing and heartfelt experience that no one fights alone,” she says.